Bzzzzz. The sound of the props on the way to cairns.

boarding

Just emailed toki about car prospect. First boarding call. Ciao. Next
stop cairns. Then Tokyo.

journey begins

Woke up about seven. Some last minute errands and I'm on the bike with
giant pack on my back. Surprisingly not too bad. I park bike in j's
yard. Cover it and lock it. Pick up t's awesome Xmas card from the
bench top vice and walk to airport. It's about fifteen minutes but
warm and sweaty with pack. Check in and realize i'm ninety minutes
early. Wait ages for a coffee. Move through security where the qantas
hotspot signal is strong enough. See connie who is going to Melbourne.
Digging iPod touch, kid a, free wifi. Excited to see everyone in
cairns especially milly. She was a little frantic on phone this
morning. Wow just got a call about Toki's Beemer. Ten mins later
would have been too late.

dilemma

if I watch the sigur ros documentary will it make it harder to hold onto my conviction that they are in fact not human but actually aliens or perhaps some type of higher beings from a another plane of existence? note that seeing them perform live did not introduce any doubts instead it made it more obvious that this must be the case

gadgets: what might have made the kindle better

Kindle - It's a book reader from Amazon. Downloads books via mobile phone networks.

• Colour
• If it was $99 instead of $399
• If it looked more like an iPhone and less like a prop from low budget 1970s scifi movie
• A touch screen instead of 600 buttons
• A proper web browser

gadgets: what we all need - a computer you can cuddle

The Chumby

"couple" email addresses

do you know any of those? usually something like baz-n-sheila@somelocalisp.net? aren't they quaint. not the best for signing up to rsvp though. and what happens if baz and sheila break up? calamity.

more poker

I'm short stacked, flop top pair (Jacks), go all in and get called by King high. turn is a King and I'm going home. But... unlucky beat so I don't feel too bad, plus I'm 19th, my first top 20 finish. Another couple of minutes I'd have been top 16 aka "in the points"

top five worst things about riding your motorcycle in the rain

I have learnt this today.

• 6. Poor visibility as your visor becomes covered with water
• 5. Driving through extra water thrown up by oncoming semi-trailers
  
• 4. Needle sharp drops of water hitting your exposed neck
• 3. Wondering if your the camera in your jacket pocket or the phone in your pants pocket will survive
• 2. The moment when water soaks through your jeans to your privates
• 1. The moment (some time later) when water soaks down underneath your butt

Best thing:

• Hot shower and cup of tea when you get home
  

calligraphy robot

I like it

monday night

I'm small blind, I limp in with 6 7 off suit. flop is 3 5 7. dude goes all in. everyone folds. I have him covered but only just. somehow I feel he hasn't flopped a straight and call. he's got K 6. my sevens hold, and bam I just about double up. it's my first time putting someone out.

dude goes all in pre flop with a low pair. For some reason I fold A Q. Another guy calls with A J. An ace hits on the flop. I miss a chance to triple up. Lesson: consider playing A Q pre-flop!

I'm on J 5 and a jack hits on the flop. I raise and get called. river is a 5. I slow play and make a minimum raise as dude (K J) hits two pair on the river and goes all in. I'm going home. Lesson: don't muck around with two pair on the turn. I go all in then he probably folds and I'm in the top 16.

(my third apl game and second at the riverside tavern. I made the top 25, actually probably closer to top 20, which was my best effort by a long shot).

in case you can't get enough feist

feist live on SNL via stereogum

owliness

this morning

If you've ever been to the Parkside Post Office (my local) you'll know the guy who runs it is a bit of a character (read nutjob). He's not entirely unlikeable though.

Post Office guy: Can I help you?
Me: Yeah, I have some registered mail to pick up.
PG: (Get's it) Oh, right, oh I have to tell you I took the tickets out and sold them. Tickets right?
Me: (Nod)
PG: (To post office woman). What do you reckon, eh? I took the tickets. Ha ha. Just a blank piece of paper in here now.
Post Office woman: (uncomfortable smile)
Me: Right, yeah. I hope not.
PG: You going to see some of that "rock-n-roll" music I bet. Or were going. Ha ha.
Me: Actually it's a harp playing folk singer accompanied by the Sydney Symphony at the Opera House. You might like it!
PG: Oh well a good friend of mine is an Opera singer.
Me: O-kay.
PG: The harp is a good instrument played well.
Me: Indeed it is.
PG: Sign here. And can I see some ID.
Me: (Leaving) This better not be a red light camera fine...

aussie hip hop no longer cringeworthy

in fact it's damn good.
Hilltop Hoods: Bliss 'n' Eso: Urthboy (a few years old but I like it): Joel Turner and friends. Featuring Brisneyland (it gets better after the intro and okay the chorus sucks): Oldy but a goody: For some more Hilltop Hoods live...

Still waiting for the Australian Mike Skinner though. But he might be out there. Come forth Aussie Mike Skinner...

andrew bird and sufjan stevens in brisbane on the same night

sufjan at the tivoli. andy at the zoo. what cruel and twisted booking agent made this happen! aahhhh! (actually I probably can't get to either show..)

best and worst things about the movie "proof"

best: gwyneth paltrow spends a lot of time in a white singlet and no bra.

worst: we are supposed to believe jake gyllenhaal is a maths geek.

disclaimer: i haven't seen the whole movie.

this is making me very happy

http://www.lyon.edu/wolfcollection/songs/alphasongs.html

cool things you can do with twitter

See here

what's new: twitter

if this blog just isn't enough then perhaps what you need is a subscription to my twitter feed. (also see new widget in sidebar). also I'm on facebook now if you wanna give me a poke (oo er!)

brisneyland

forget tired old "Brisvegas", I now dub thy venerable Great South East "Brisneyland"

(remember, you heard it here first)

Also, can someone please explain the difference between a "storm cell" and a plain old storm?

update on speaker cable challenge with james randi

It's all off. apparently the company will not provide a set of their cables for use in such a test. and the dude who was up for the challenge doesn't want to buy his own set. people are getting a little worked up.

A glimpse into the future of music

Vocaloid

1. Create a virtual pop group using Vocaloid in the style of say the Spice Girls.
2. Model the girls in 3d have them appear in sexy videos using computer animation. (Alternatively hire the guys who did the Gorillaz videos)
3. Profit.

Actually this probably already happened in Japan, not sure.



Vocaloid on YouTube


There is a downloadable demo of Vocaloid 2, recently available with English voices. See here for details and demo tracks like this one where Lola sounds quite a bit like Jimmy Somerville. The demo version only sings the words "I", "love", "you", "baby" which should be enough for at least the first two singles.

poor mama hedgehog

ouchy.

I'm still on about Idol:

Natalie: You're talented and cute. Why do they pick on you so much? How about some Missy Higgins?

Marty: Quit the show, get an agent and a band and go on tour with Xavier Rudd/John Butler/Pete Murray/Josh Pyke/Beautiful Girls/Jack Johnson etc.

Hair boy: The Sting song was okay but it's time to go.

Trumpet boy: I thought you sucked until tonight. Now you are good. Weird. But keep it up. No more Buble crap please.

idol

Brought to you by Matt Corby:

The Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice Matt's version

Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie Matt's version (coming soon to YouTube).

The Bedouin Song - Lior More Matt...

Another random Idol highlight:

astronomy with joanna

and, Emily - I saw you last night
by the river
I dreamed you were skipping little stones across
the surface of the water
frowning at the angle where they were lost,
and slipped under forever,
in a mud-cloud, mica-spangled,
like the sky'd been breathing on a mirror

anyhow - I sat by your side,
by the water
you taught me the names of the stars overhead
that I wrote down in my ledger
tho all I knew of the rote universe
were those pleiades loosed in december
I promised you I‘d set them to verse
so I'd always remember

that the meteorite is a source of the light
and the meteor's just what we see
and the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee

and the meteorite's just what causes the light
and the meteor's how it's perceived
and the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee

On Emily: Like every other song on this record, "Emily" is deeply biographical. The Emily in the song is my sister, who's an astrophysicist; the narrator is myself, who is not an astrophysicist. Emily is the wanderer; she lives in Argentina and sometimes New Zealand. I'm not a wanderer, which is funny because I'm on tour half the time. I'm a home, hearth and family kind of person.

On Ys: There were four very big things that happened in my life in this particular year, and so four of the songs are about these things. The fifth song, "Only Skin", was an effort to talk about the connections between the events.

for more: milky moon and pitchfork.

ASIMO IS COMING!

Support act: AWESOM-O.

baby hedgehog

sorry, couldn't resist

this is a bit special

bruce springsteen keeps the car running with arcade fire. you have to listen for the dude in audience who gets VERY excited. via stereogum

Randi's comments on the matter

see here

James Randi's Great Speaker Cable Challenge

I shall be watching this closely.

$7,250 Speaker Cables Turn You Into a Dancin' Fool

Transparent Opus Speaker Cables Bring You Audio Nirvana for $43,000 a Pair

James Randi Offers $1 Million If Audiophiles Can Prove $7250 Speaker Cables Are Better

Pear Cable CEO Calls James Randi's $1 Million Offer a Hoax

Journalist Accepts $1 Million Challenge: Do $7250 Cables Sound Better or Not?

wow

wing suit base jumping

I paid two pounds

radiohead says "pay whatever you want for our latest album"

New J-Nu

It's a new song from Joanna Newsom called Esame. Some lyrics here.

a little something

http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/3631897/

for the cultured: 'a short film prequel to the new wes anderson'

for the rest of you: 'natalie portman gets naked'

New Buffalo

I was in the front row. It was nice. She mostly did new songs but a couple of older ones, She did "Yes", which she described as being about sex, and this one: Sally played piano mostly with a couple of songs on a classical guitar, She was accompanied by Jessica who played percussion, a little keyboard, cello and backing vocals. She seemed a little nervous but that's kind of her style. The crowd gave her a pretty good response I think. The new songs went pretty well. "I'm the drunk and you're the star" was very memorable as was "You've gone my friend". "Cheer Me Up Thank You" is my new favourite. There were some sampled vocals (the ah ah ahh part) but Jessica sang the bom bom bom part and it was super sweet. I didn't record that sadly but here is the video:

me in london kinda

see here. you can see my coffee table, Jeremy Ruston, Robbie, and a little bit of the london skyline. weirdly I am mirror reversed - I think due to the coriolis effect.

Also check out this, it's Saq and Phil interviewing Jeremy.

summer heights high = pure genius

watched ep 2 last night. this show is utterly brilliant. best
australian tv ever.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=summer+heights+high&search=Search

grinderman pt 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuDP7c3Zd8I

grinderman = awesome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxjjrlsnlhM

TV tip: Summer Heights High

Download here. It's like a Christoper Guest mockumentary but set in an Australian school with one very talented guy (the writer) playing: a. camp drama teacher, b. tongan(?) tough kid, c. private school exchange girl.

this deserves part marks, right?

automatic mario

if you like mario and you''re bored or can't sleep you can watch these

bloxorz

It's a very cool flash puzzle game. bloxorz.

Arf, arf, do the doggy bounce

Heh heh. A great episode. Better than last couple of episodes. Sadly it was the season finale ... :( so no more Flight of the Chonchords for a while.

can the world get enough of 1234?

First it was my blog ;), then ebay. Now it's the new ipod nano. What next? Coke? I am picturing monster royalty cheques coming the way of Sally Seltman, who by the way I have tickets to see on Wednesday. She's supporting Paul Kelly. And, next Friday, Milly & I are seeing comedian and Flight of the Conchords star, Arj Barker in Thuringowa!. I am happy as a clam in chowder.

Feist (plus special guests) on Letterman

See here.

monkeys are evil

"When we come to chase the monkeys away, we are dressed in trousers and hats, so that we look like men," resident Lucy Njeri told the BBC News website

"But the monkeys can tell the difference and they don't run away from us and point at our breasts. They just ignore us and continue to steal the crops."

"The monkeys grab their breasts, and gesture at us while pointing at their private parts. We are afraid that they will sexually harass us," said Mrs Njeri.

Read more....

Moon

mystical experience delivered by technology

this is pretty cool. trick yourself into having an out-of-body experience. required: vr googles. a friend with a pointy stick.

google sky update - hubble images

Okay get this, they have put hubble photos IN THEIR CORRECT PLACE IN THE SKY. For instance to see the crab nebula in hi-res just find where it is (use the markers) and ZOOM IN. This is sublime. Google, we love you.

Google Stars

I've been waiting for this. Cool.

The space imagery includes over one million photographs from various sources, including the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Palomar Observatory at the California Institute of Technology and the Hubble Telescope.

I guess you can't fly out to the planets or stars yet though. But soon.

Number 3: The Dunedin Regent Theatre 24 Hour Book Sale

We stumbled into this by chance in Dunedin. Imagine a beautiful old theatre like the Muppet Show theatre. The aisles and the stage are filled with books. It is literally shoulder to shoulder with excited people picking through books which are all 50 cents each. This is at about 10:30pm at night and outside it's beanie, scarf and gloves cold. There all ages of people there. Families, old folks, hipster couples. It seems like everyone is happy and smiling at each other. Most people are clutching a stack of books they've already found. When you buy books they wrap them up in newspaper so the streets outside are filled with people with wrapped book bundles. On the stage in a small area not filled with books there is a jazz band playing. Some people are sitting in the theatre seats watching the band. Milly and I were both so moved by the joy and beauty of the books and people that we both decided then that we have to move to Dunedin.

Here are some links:

• Picture gallery featuring happy worm
• 2005 news article
• 2004 news article
• In wikipedia

misheard lyrics

This is how I sing it:

And if the music ain't good, well it's just too bad
We're gonna sing along to Vanna Wood
Because the dancers don't mind at the New Orleans
If you tip 'em then they'll make it good

Who's Vanna Wood? How should I know? Perhaps she's a friend of Vanna White? :)

In case you're wondering...

for philip pullman fans

If you like Dark Materials trilogy, then take a look at Physicists Discover Inorganic Dust With Lifelike Qualities.

Ps, here is my review of The Northern Lights (aka The Golden Compass) trailer:

f**k yeah!!! but the bear should be much bigger (godammit) :(

BioShock hype - looks like another good reason to own a 360

This game is a beacon. It's one of those monumental experiences you'll never forget, and the benchmark against which games for years to come will, and indeed must, be measured. This isn't merely an evolution of System Shock 2, but a wake-up call to the industry at large.

...

There is art here, despite what many would say isn't possible with games, from Roger Ebert to game designers like Hideo Kojima. But it's in BioShock--it's in the gorgeously realized, watery halls of Rapture. It's in a Little Sister's expression of thanks when you choose to save her, or the utter silence if you harvest instead. It's in the way the characters develop, in the testimonials of the recording boxes you pick up along the way. It's in the way the narrative is structured, and the way it blends so seamlessly with the action. Irrational had a clear vision with this game, something pulled off with remarkable precision in every department. They didn't just deliver something that's fun to play, a criterion so often cited as the benchmark of what makes a game worthwhile. BioShock stands as a monolithic example of the convergence of entertaining gameplay and an irresistibly sinister, engrossing storyline that encompasses a host of multifaceted characters. This is an essential gaming experience.

I think he liked it. 'Harvesting a Little Sister'? Sounds cool. Read more here.

Ps, it appears to be unanimous: Gamesradar: 10
Eurogamer: 10
Game Informer: 10
IGN: 9.7
Chuck Norris: 10
Official Xbox Magazine UK: 10
PC Gamer UK: 9.5
PC Zone: 9.6
Gamespy: 10 (5/5)
1UP: 10
Metacritic 9.9

Oracle tip - how to refresh a materialized view

execute DBMS_SNAPSHOT.REFRESH('my_mat_view','A');

Elton confirmed for North Qld

See here. I heard it was $140 and he's not even bringing a band..

Sigur Ros in Melbourne in October

They're performing the score for a dance performance. They are coming all this way, surely they will schedule some shows while they're here. Please? Oh here, I googled this. Some fans with mixed emotions: "Sigur Ros in Melbourne? They're coming??". "Yes, but it's for a... a dance show." :)

The Office (USA)

One of the best things on TV at the moment. Thought it might 'jump the shark' at the end of season two with the Jim/Pam dynamic changing but fear not. Highlights from season three: Dwight's secret meeting with Jan, Andy meeting Michael the first time, Andy's phone in the roof, Pam's firewalk, and so many more. Here's a few clips. My only comment (warning spoiler....),


Jim, Karen is way hot! What are you thinking? ;)

So lets look at the track record for US remakes of UK shows. Red Dwarf? Ab Fab? Men Behaving badly? (I guess there are others..?) All disasters. So The Office was quite a surprise. Did you hear that Ben Silverman (responsible for The Office (US)) is making Kath & Kim (US)? My first instinct is disaster, but you never know, he's proven it can be done, right?

for my bunny deery

ca' the yowes to the knowes
ca' them where the heather grows
ca' them where the burnie rows
my bonnie dearie

when I went down the water side
to see the fishes sweetly glide
beneath the hazel spreading wide
and the moon that shines so clearly

when I went down the water side
'twas there I met my shepherd lad
he rolled me sweetly in his plaid
and called me by his dearie

if you'll but stand to what you've said
I'll come with you, my bonnie lad
and you may roll me in your plaid
and I will be your dearie

you will get gowns and ribbons meet
and leather shoes upon your feet
and in my arms you'll lie and sleep
my bonnie dearie

as waters wimple to the sea
while day breaks in the sky so fine
till clay-cold death shall blind my eye
I shall be thy dearie

till clay-cold death shall blind my eye
I shall be thy dearie

Kiwi greeting

I encountered this in Christchurch a couple of times so I can't say for sure if it's a nationwide thing. Instead of saying "How are you?", "How's it going", "How're you doing?", say "How's it?". And don't forget to add a Kiwi accent when trying thus et home. The first time I heard this was in a petrol station. It took me a second or two to decipher.

Petrol station checkout operator: "How's ut?"
Me: "Um... er... oh fine thanks".

I'm thinking about getting one of these

Why? 1. Record band rehearsals to catalogue and remember songs. 2. Make bootleg recordings of live shows.

Preview of new stuff from Chinchy

resident evil 5 trailer

Playing Resident Evil 4 on the Nintendo Gamecube (that's right) was one of the best (and scariest) gaming experiences I've ever had. Resident Evil 5 on the XBox 360 may actually may be too scary for me. Check it out above. Warning, scary and violent. Ps, apparently people are saying it's racist since the zombies are black...

Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny - Disappointing

I love Jack Black but this was really bad. For some reason I had high hopes for this movie. They really should have got some help with the writing. Steer clear of this one.

one sunday

[location: overflow at sunland plaza. i'm looking for letter box numbers. milly is looking for rabbit-ear antennas]

fm radio station break: If you wanna hear some stuff, then you've come to the right place

milly: oh my god. did you hear that?

me: 'hear some stuff'? is that what they said? 'hear some stuff'? f**king hell

milly: that is the stupidest thing i've ever heard on the radio (and that's really saying something)

me: perhaps it was meant ironically

random woman in store: [beaming] that's just how we are up here [meaning townsville, I presume...] - we're just so relaxed

milly: [icily] well i was born here and i'm not that "relaxed"

woman: (scowl, scurry)

me: (giggle)

Oracle create database link example

The syntax for the create database link command is pretty much impossible to figure out. I always get it wrong. Even when I read the docs carefully. So here's my version of the example.

CREATE DATABASE LINK
    name_of_link
  CONNECT TO
    oracle_username
  IDENTIFIED BY
    password -- no quotes here
  USING
    'database_sid' -- single quotes here
/
-- test
select * from dual@name_of_link
/

interstella tunes on myspace

I think I forgot to mention you can go listen to some tracks by my band over on our myspace. also I just noticed AUX has some very nice new stuff. well not that new but I just found them. "together apart" has some stationwagony guitar sounds.

I hope that someone gets my...

I hope that someone gets my...
I hope that someone gets my...
Tickets in the may-il.
Tickets in the may-il, yeeaah

damn, how did I miss this back in the 80s

We'll be sold when Roddy comes
Comes for pearly dewdrop's drops
Tis the lucky lucky penny penny penny
Buys the pearly to their souls
...

Who knows what effect that would have had on me in 1985. I'd probably have some different records in the box in my garage at the very least. Thanks John and YouTube. Now please excuse me while I watch that a few more times.

my nz trip by the lazy blogger

I went too. Okay that was pretty lazy. I do promise some nz related posts in the future.

Oh alright, here's one now.

Top 5 things about NZ

5. They shrunk their coins. I don't know if you know this but Australian coins are enormous. Change for a coke zero can weigh more than the can. These things put holes in your pocket faster than an extra in Oliver Twist. They can destroy expensive wallets. NZ coins used to be the same size as Aussie coins but some time between my last time there and this time they shrunk them. Now they are about half the size they used to be. And to save themselves some effort, they kept the exact same design! Only smaller! Pure genius. Also they abolished the five cent piece and made the ten cent a bronzey colour like the old ones and twos used to be. C'mon Aussie, lets follow our Oceanic neighbours and get rid of our oversized coins.

Here's a picture: and a link.

4. The Flight of the Conchords
They have a tv show now. It's really good. They are like Tenacious D kinda but less metal and more Kiwi. Go and get it here if you're torrent savvy.

(to be continued).

some news from Sigur Rós

See here, amongst other things a live dvd.

Announcing Fractalmapr

I had the idea for this last October. I tried to create it using a thing called OpenLayers, an opensource "Google Maps-like" system. At the time I didn't realise that it could be done with the actual Google Maps api itself. Long story short, check it out here. The domain name? Well back in 2006 it seemed cool...
What is it?
It's an online Mandelbrot set fractal viewer using the Google Maps API.

Hasn't that been done before?
Not that I'm aware of.

Things to try

• Double click zooming
• Mouse wheel
• Dragging the mini-map
• Dragging the blue square on the mini-map

TODO

• Implement "bookmark/link to this view...
• Better and deeper rendering. I'm using fractint (the finest fractal generator for the Intel 386 running DOS) and an antialias/size reduction method that I prefer not to mention. Hence the tiles are 256 colour gifs. I'm guessing 24 bit colour pngs would be a lot better but I can't find a free renderer that I can use in batch mode. Anyone want to help me with this? I suppose writing my own would be one solution.
• Different palettes
• Other fractals
• Show co-ordinates in some way. A layer?
• Make grey background in map into black somehow
• Start a blog?

Update 8/9/08
I'm letting the domain name expire. The new url is this http://randomibis.com/fractalmapr/.

joanna newsom in a wolf skin

sorry I can't resist arrroooowww

nintendo

Now don't get me wrong I still love my (HD-less) Wii. Here's a little something I'm waiting for. Check out the bee suit! :)
Also if you like video games check out some more trailers from E3 or check out Joystiq's coverage.

Xbox 360 round up

so I have become quite fond of my xbox 360 recently. I am pretty much a HD snob now. gaming in HD is very good. I feel like Nintendo was wrong to leave HD off the wii. my cheap-as-I-can-find 40 inch LCD and my 360 are a match made in heaven. random notes:

• Half Life 2 Orange Box. It's coming soon. HL2 orig plus HL2 ep 1 plus HL2 ep 2. HL2 was beautiful on the Xbox. On the 360 at 720 I expect it to be godly. I will not mind replaying the first half of the game.
• PGR4. I have PGR3 and I wasn't sure that the weather effects and new cities were enough to warrant a purchase. But just now I discover that it will include bikes. Yeow. I can't wait to try the "in-car" camera on a bike. That could be good.
• Viva Pinata. This game is so wonderful. I won't try to explain it here but the game has so much depth you could probably play it for years before doing everything there is to do. This kind of game is like crack for Milly. She's level 64 or so and has master breeder award for most of the lower level animals.
• Table Tennis by Rockstar. I bought this for $20 at EB. It's very cool. The players are very serious looking. They never crack a smile. My nephew age three can kick my butt at this game.
• Kameo by Rare. I got this for free and only just bothered to try it out. It's actually very cool. I've done the first intro level and enjoyed it quite a lot. Possibly not a five star game but I think I'll give it another go.
• Halo 3. September. Enough said.
• Dead or Alive 4 (or whatever number). I'm not really into this. I think it's time for realistic motion capture in fighting games. Marionette legs look stupid.
• Gears of War. I like it a lot but for one reason or another I've only played the first two levels. Will get back to it soon.
• Grand Theft Auto 4. Watch here. This will be amazing.

So all in all it's a good time to own a 360.

a big octosquid scaring some ninjas

click here if you have windows media player. Or read here

important information that i learned from the da vinci code

I just read da vinci code. I'm going to save you the bother of reading it yourself by telling you this important information:

1. Jesus was a great philospher and leader but never claimed to be the Son of God
2. Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and got her pregnant. There are decendants of Mary and Jesus alive today
3. Christianity as we know it now was basically invented in 400AD by a roman dude named Constantine who ordered the new Testament to be written, removing lots of stuff about Jesus getting married inventing the Son of God part. He was a pagan himself but saw Christianity as the future of repressing society, collecting money, devaluing women and the pagan "sacred female"
4. The "real" books of the apostles (about 120 of them), Jesus's own writings plus detailed genealogical records of Jesus's decendants, along with a sarcophagus containing Mary's body exists and is kept hidden by a secret society called "Priory of Sion". This is the real Holy Grail.
5. Part of the church subverting paganism involved recasting pagan deities (eg, the goat) into satan and rebadging pagan rituals like easter, christmas, Mary (the catholic Mary), (but we knew this already right?).
6. The "Knights Templar" was a group of Knights who served the Priory of Sion and protected the Grail. One of the popes ordered hundreds of them to be murdered one day on the Friday the 13th (which was the original Friday the 13th).
7. The Priory of Sion exists today and sometimes carry on pagan sexual rites such as in the movie Eyes Wide Shut and it's grand masters have included Isaac Newton, Leonardo da Vinci and other famous dudes
8. Countless references and allusions to Mary and the true Grail story are hidden in art and literature. Also many books have been written on the topic.

Well there might be more but that's the gist of it. Of course it's just a novel but nevertheless interesting stuff. Dan Brown's FAQ. Typical Christian debunking

octosquid

if I had to pick my favourite animal in the world it would be an octopus or a squid. they are awesome cool creatures in fact they can change colours and even their shape. sometimes they can put on light shows way down in the deep ocean. also they can open jars and do other sweet tricks like that. and they can fight sperm whales. usally the whale will win but now and again a collosal squid would surprise a cocky sperm whale who thought he had some easy lunch and end up getting wrestled to the bottom of the ocean and then a giant squid beak stuck through his eye. one more good thing about squids is they have a beak and big eyes and also if you piss them off they will squirt you with ink. Probably they could also take on a whole room of ninjas especially if the room was underwater. in conclusion the best animal of all is the octosquid. It has the powers of both a squid and an octopus and that's why it is the best animal. also camels are pretty cool.

this was funny

Gnome corpse advertisement in WoW by gold farmers. Think of those poor gnomes' families!

and indeed it was good

more iphone fanboyism. actually it's smaller than I thought.

I'm not the only one who liked that song

it's an ad for ebay australia. well done Sally Seltman, I hope you're getting loads of money from this... :)

OmniZero.4 can skip, climb a ladder, and make an omlette?

via robots-dreams.com.

okay well I guess not everyone loves the lolcats

actually I think the moment has passed for me also. but anyhow I wanted to show you some of my favourite photos from our queens birthday weekend trip to Mt Isa. here they are in flickr. or in a flickr slideshow. I added captions so make sure you click the "i" button.

I CAN HAS CHEEZ BURGER

These are called lolcats. They are cats with funny captions. They are popular and very funny. You can get many more here and other places.

gnarls barkley on theremin

Are Theremin's better then they used to be? Via Stereogum.

Creating a Legendary Coat

I enjoyed this post. Make your coat a legendary coat.

fun with google street view

girl with really bad timing. How would you like to have this moment preserved forever in google maps?

bikini girls sunbathing. well it's not much but still more interesting than "guy walks out of strip club" or "guy taking a leak on a telephone pole".

you can go here or here for more but I don't think it's worth the bother really.

Okay one more, it's the google street view team waving for the camera.

Lily Allen

she's pretty much the opposite of girly. here's a video I took at luna park of lily (doing her one of her many ex-girlfriend-from-hell songs): and there's a story you can read in the comments about Lily and a guy from Jet.

Weird girly singer round-up

okay so I have recently learned that Camille is actually quite well known and in fact was in the the Triple J top 100 last year. So I am offering a full refund to all readers of my blog who feel unsatisfied with the freshness of my music related posts. Just present your ticket stub at the desk on the way out.

To make ammends here is my weird girly singer round up.

CocoRosie

I have listened to their new CD. Very cool. Very weird. Could be my new favourite.

Feist

Well the 1,2,3,4 song is super but so far other tracks on her latest album haven't grabbed me much.

New Buffalo

I'm a big fan of her first album, so much so that I made this web site. First impressions of her new album are that it's a little bit dull compared to the first album. Seems to have replaced her samples and loops with boring piano songs. But I will listen some more.

Camille

French. Lost of song writing talent. Very french. Not entirely weird but weird enough. I feel like I might become tired of it some day but not yet.

Francois Breut (curly bit on the c)

French. Favourite of Greenapplecat. Less annoying that Camille. But actually I can't find her album on my usual music sources sites so I can't really say.

Regina Spektor

Zzzz. Well she's nice but I thought the song writing on her album was pretty bland overall.

Cat Power

Nice also. Not as quite bland as Regina. I guess she was cool ('tube "cross bones style") but her album seems too slow and casino lounge bar for my taste.

Missy Higgins

Not really weird or even that girly but she has a new album out and she's a fellow Aussie so I thought I would mention her. I can't listen to Sound of White any more but her new single and video and Missy herself are just so darn likeable.

Bjork (dot dot on the o)

I love Bjork but I her unmelodic wailing is too much for me. Actually I haven't listened to her latest album so I suppose I should give it a try. Maybe she should do an album with Timbaland.

Joanna Newsom

She is weird and girly but so beyond comparison so I don't really want to mention her on this list.

I was going to add a picture or a video for each one but that would be like at least 5 pictures or so come on give me a break.

iphone hype

You can get nicer videos here.

Now don't act all cynical just to be cool. Don't even start with the, "samsung this" or "nokia that". Forget it. iPhone. GREATEST THING EVAR. You know it. Sylar has one already.

But actually, Steve, can we have a iPhone DS emulator? Or at least some kick-ass solitaire. (Mmmm... touch screen cards...) Please?

Google Maps with Street View

Check this out. You can drag the photo left and right to spin around. Click the arrows to move up or down a street. Also try picking up the little yellow man and putting him somewhere else. Look how his legs flap around. I love it. (Via TechCrunch).

I like to think in terms of technology granting me god-like powers. Prior to Google Maps satellite view, only God could see the world from above from any position. Google Earth extends my powers to provide flyovers, terrain, looking towards the horizon etc. Now this street view gives me the following god-like powers:

• look around a city thousands of miles away
• float above traffic on a busy street without danger
• freeze time (Hiro style)
• telescopic vision (try zooming in on the photo view). I can read phone numbers and opening hours on shop doors.

I guess God (and probably Sauron? (and Sylar any day now :)) would be able to achieve these feats with sound and real-time imaging, ie in God's version of Google Earth you can see yourself through the window looking at your computer. That just proves that my Google granted powers are a little behind God's. And that's as it should be, don't you think? Any company that gives me god-like powers for free is okay with me. Their email is pretty good also.

Camille - Le Fil

Now and again one of Milly's students lends her CDs to try. Usually they're not too memorable but this one girl lent her Le Fil by Camille. Camille is French and seriously amazing. Also her web site is very nice. She is clearly a little nuts (with the drone-hum in every song and the percussive fart sounds) but very talented and (may I say) incredibly sexy. Google her or 'tube her to your heart's content.

interesting article about making money with internet domains

This is about the genius who convinced cameroon to give him *.cm. Via slashdot. Some say these kind of people are just above spammers on the evil scale. I personally could argue (albeit unconvincingly) that they are actually contributing a valuable service to society. But really I just would like to be one of them. :)

I've been fascinated by this kind of thing ever since I found this site when I was looking up my (then future) bike. At the time it was one of the the top search results in Google (now it doesn't make the list, so Google is improving their filtering of this kind of thing). Take a look, it's quite impressive. I actually took a while to figure out that it wasn't a real site. Then I began to marvel at it and imagine how much money you might make if you had say 1000 of these. Or 10,000. And what if they were getting search hits from Google. WOW. Here's another nice one: weddingshoes.com. At KatanaPlanet one of the "authors" has a weird name, "Melissa J. Morphew" which you can Google to get a tiny glimpse of this one guy's collection.

Getting back to the evil scale, did you know Google is very happy to make (boat loads) of money in this way too? (See here and the faq. It says "AdSense for domains is currently available to large domain portfolio owners".. so that counts me out.) And we all know Google wouldn't be evil, right..?

buzzlegums and fudgehogs

our buzzlegums just weren't producing honey so I googled this forum page. it's funny! it's also funny that I know what they are talking about and it makes perfect sense. (if you really want to know...)

windscreen

MRA (Germany) via Twisted Throttle (USA) via Mr Postman it's home made from a sheet of perspex. not a bad job but a bit short and not too pretty. you can see the size difference. the new one is the touring model which means it's slightly longer than the stock model (which itself is much longer than the home made jobby) and has the upwards flip designed send, wind, rain and bugs up over my head. you can also see it's overdue for a wash by pure chance the rubber edging has a purple tinge to so it looks like it was chosen to match the colour. awesome looks 100% better and has made a huge difference to the amount of wind and noise hitting me on the highway. yay!

weekly heroes torrent report

Right this minute there are 29754 seeders, 19790 downloaders for the biggest torrent on torrentspy. I think it's the season finale.

pete doherty at 15

It's a YouTube video of Pete before he was famous talking to an MTV presenter while queuing to see Oasis. See here.

weekly heroes torrent report (S01E22)

via torrentspy.com. (To find Heroes torrents, go to torrentspy or EZTV and search for Heroes).

Feist, New Buffalo

I just heard of Feist, she seems pretty good.
Feist on Leno, via Stereogum (amazing voice I think) The video for the same song, 1234 which apparently was written by New Buffalo, who I have been a fan since I saw her show in brisbane (with greenapplecat) a few years ago and has a new album out just this week, called somewhere anywhere. Her new video: New Buffalo trivia: her name is Sally Seltman and husband is a member of The Avalanches.

the fake people

Paraphrased from big brother:
J: oh there's so many fake people in this house. oh boy I just can't stand the fake people. you're not fake, you're so genuine, just like me, that why we can hang out together
E: yeah, the other day I was thinking of saying something but I didn't say it, because I just don't feel comfortable being myself with all those fake people
J: yeah I really wish the fake people would like me more but if they don't think I'm good enough for them well I will just sit by myself and not say anything
E: I hate those people who just can't be themselves.
J: me too
etc

My Annual BB rating card

Like: Bodie, Emma, Aleisha, Billy
Whatever: Tony, Joel, TJ, Travis, Demet, Thomas, Susannah, Nick
Can't stand: Kate, Rebecca, Haley, Jamie, Gretel

tv

Last night our TV broke. It just stopped working. I liked that TV. :( It was a widescreen. It was only a few years old. I sent it to the shop but my hunch is that it could be a one way trip. I guess it's time for a new TV. Normally this would be good news but I had this little dream of buying a HD panel with 1080p and an XBox 360 with Gears of War on the same day and hooking them all up together in a little daze of happiness. In my fantasy this can be achieved for under $1500 which means the dream happens far in the future when the 360 and big HD TVs are cheaper. Now my hand is forced. Isn't it great that this is my biggest problem in life? We have three other TVs. So anyway, LCD or plasma? Let me know before tonight preferably.

Kirwan police crime bulletin

This one has some variety. We have the usual Dan Murphy's shop lifters (is that a bottle of Johnny Walker in your pocket or um...), cab fare evaders, purse snatchers. (Though I don't know about that one really - the woman leaves her purse behind at the vale and when she comes back some one has taken it. you could perhaps call that "finding" rather then "stealing"). Also we have a stabbing and a flasher. :( That's not cool.

The Crime Bulletin, Vol 1 Number 11, 9 May 2007.

(Crime Stoppers 1800 333 000).

My house in Google Earth

If you were paying attention to this blog about a year ago you might remember that I was very excited by SketchUp. Well I was in Google Earth and I've noticed that more and more buildings are starting to appear. There is a very dodgey looking Sydney Opera House. The Sydney Harbour bridge looks pretty good, as does the Center Point. Brisbane has a couple of buildings also. The level of detail is excellent compared to when I was last looking at Google Earth buildings. I remember looking at San Francisco. There were buildings there and it was cool but they all looked like various sized beige shoe boxes. Now we have nice looking models and even textures and so on. This inspired me to have another go at putting my house in Google Earth for real this time. I download the latest SketchUp and dug up my .skp file. I fiddled with the rotation, scale and position and submitted to the 3D warehouse. I think someone has to now approve it before it will appear. Will keep you posted. Here's a link. Better yet, here it is embedded:

bunny letter opener

Hackety Hack and _why's new blog

Code poet, writer, artist, insane genius and ruby guru _why has a new project and a new blog. Hackety Hack is coolety cool.

Heroes. Sylar. O... M...... F..... G!

Just saw 19 & 20. Holy crap. Thank you Mr Kring. This is literally the best thing I have ever seen on any screen ever. Ep 20 made me wet my pants. Seriously. Thank you. I will buy the DVDs.

Mordeth13

So I've not really been into video blogs until now. There is this one guy called Mordeth13. He's a Canadian guy who works as a teacher in a city in Taiwan. He mostly blogs with a helmet cam while riding his motorcycle or scooter. Anyway I suggest checking him out if you have the bandwidth. A couple of starters:

• Mordeth13 catches a Hit and Run killer
• M13 cries, scolds an elderly lady, helps a dog, and swears a lot.
• The biker wave (one of his most famous videos)

It's hard to describe why he's interesting but there's something about it. Sorry I'm not being very clear. YMMV. If you like the above then you can get loads more here.

the sorry state of music tv

Just for instance here's what's on right now. Channel V - Ice T's Rap School. MTV - The Hills Marathon. VH1 - Flavor Flav in yet another lame "reality" show. Other highlights, Bam Magera/Hulk Hogan/Various other D- grade "celebs" in yet more lame reality shows. Laguna beach, etc. Some lame Japanese game show with lame overdubbing (thanks Channel V). I also saw girls wrestling in slime also with overdubbing. (Trust me it's worse than it sounds). Etc. It goes on. Well it's no news that MTV makes TV shows, and once they were worth something, eg Beavis and Butthead, Daria, Pimp my Ride I don't mind, Cribs I can watch. Those where the good old days for sure. Now it's turned bad. And worse, other channels are doing their best to follow in the footsteps of MTV but with even harder scrapes of the barrel if that were possible. Eg, they have even found some crappy "reality" show from NZ. Can I get some music on my music TV? Perhaps squeeze a song or two in between the ringtone commercials (which I can do a whole nother rant about if prompted.... (On the other hand I did enjoy some of the video blog show on V). I'm not against reality shows in the broader sense, eg Big Brother. My tip: Billy to win. Aleisha runner up.

heroes torrent

Filename	Heroes.S01E20.HDTV.XviD-LOL.[eztv].torre...
Total Size	349.22 M (366182400 bytes)
Author	death734 - Member Since: 11/7/2005
Submitted	19 hours 16 mins ago
Checked	1 hour 51 mins ago
Health	14378 Seeders / 18741 Downloaders

Look how many people are downloading this one Heroes torrent right now.

(To find Heroes torrents, go to torrentspy or EZTV and search for Heroes).

on beards

Evolutionarily speaking the fact that beards exist means that they increase your chances of a) living longer or b) attracting a mate. Or if you prefer, God (and I don't think He shaves, do you?) created your beard so why are you so determined to remove it? Don't you want to look like God? Do you think you know better than God about how your head should look? Whatever the case I think it's pretty clear that you should grow a beard.

Timbaland is the new King of Pop

The last few Nelly Furtado singles are just ridiculously good, particularly the last two, ("Say it right", "All good things..."), and I don't mean just "good, for a pop song". Plus what about these: the Pussycat dolls song ("Wait a minute"), the one with JT and Nelly, ("Give it to me"), some of the JT stuff, "My love", "Goes around/comes around", (I didn't care for "Sexy Back"). Timbaland dethrones Pharrell, all hail.

In other pop music news, the award for worst (non-)rhyming, "delicious/addictive" goes to Avril. And the coolest pop song of the week goes to Cupid's Chokehold. Did you notice that guy raps almost exactly like Eminem?

i blog my weekend, the sequel

• Friday night, I go to play poker. It's the Australian Poker League. I have to sign up and get my little player id card. Since I don't know where I'm going I got trapped into joining the Brother's Leagues Club. $5.50. I was early, had to sit around for a while. I met this woman who started talking to me. Turns out she knows A. Moll. Alex is there. I talk to a tall bearded guy who works at the hospital. A woman at my table tells about when she went down to a big tournament somewhere. You have to pay your own air fares but it's worth it she says. A guy at my table spills his beer all over the table. Eventually I get knocked out about 10:20pm which is not too bad, I guess I almost made it to the top 50%. Won a few pots but didn't have much luck. I think I will play again.
• After I get home I start watching Big Brother Up Late. So far BB has bored me (first week) but I get sucked in to Emma and what's her name in the bath tub discussing nominations. Later (Sunday night, dinner and BB at K & S's), I shush people when I can't hear. So I guess I'm 100% hooked again. Oh well. :)
• Since I'm tired and feel lazy I sleep in and miss circuit with Viv. Milly goes and says it was great. She has brekky afterwards with the On Fire crew and gets hard poached eggs on her benny. (Side note: Lately this is the bain marie of our lives. To all breakfast chefs: poached eggs are meant to have SOFT yolks. And don't say I should have pacifically arksed for soft. I didn't have to ask you to NOT burn the toast did I? Gah. Well I suppose this is what you have to live with when you live in a regional centre).
• Well the rest of the weekend I mostly just sat around staring at the TV feeling laziness and vague guilt for my idleness. Oh and I watched Hostel. Ew.

i blog my weekend

I had a nice weekend. This is so I can look back some day and remember it.

• I drink a small glass of red at work. Talk to Anne about her dream to start a Montesorri school next year.
• I ride home. Everyone was upstairs on front balcony couch. I drink a beer. T is hammered on about three sips of bubbly. :)
• M was having a sleepover at Grandma's. S and K drop him off and the 5 of us go around to Danny and Louise's. Talk to D about Robert Rodriguez movies. He lends me Hostel and the Mexico trilogy. He shows me his US version of Sin City that comes with the actual book. We eat chilli with rice. Then we play kelly pool, drink beer and listen to their mp3 mix tape. D and L invite us to come fishing the next day. Milly's and T say they're going to Viv's circuit class. I said I was too but no-one believes me. :)
• Get up about 7. Go to circuit class. It was really good but hard. Viv > Sam. Feeling the effects of the beer I flake out two thirds in and have to sit down and try not to vomit. T is a champ.
• We drive to Rowe's bay and recognise D's car by it's Everton sticker. It's nearly 9am. They are on the beach with a bunch of rods setup on rod holders. D has knee high black stinger socks. He's cast-netting for bait. The water is flat and the sun hot. The beach is almost empty. We put on sunscreen. T is afraid of sunburn so she sits wrapped up in towels and umbrellas. D gives me a spare rod and I do a reasonable job of casting right over one of his lines. It's Mum's 60th so I go back to the car and get my mobile to call her in Alice Springs. We joke about motor cycles. There's pretty good signal. While I'm on the phone D catches a baby hammer head shark. He catches little white fish with black stripes and yellow bits and uses some for live bait. Later I get a few bites but catch nothing.
• We go home and meet K, S and M. I wonder how M's sleepover went. He seems a little stressed. We decide to have lunch at Clint Bradley's. We take two cars. Milly and I get to ride together alone which is nice. I order a savoury muffin that came with weird green gherkin relish and coffee and ready yesterday's paper. We talk about how T is going to be an extra in the Baz Luhrman movie. She's organising accomodation in Bowen for 5 weeks next month.
• On the way home we stop at the big Salvos. This used to be our weekly habit but it's been a long time since I've been there since we are now trying get rid of junk instead of collecting it.I bought a travel document holder. $1. We look next door at asics shoes for Milly.
• At home we stare at the telly for a while. I decide to go buy some touch up paint for my bike. I find it at Supercheap auto and also buy some other bits and pieces there including a tyre pressure tester. On the way home I practice slow U-turns in the back of Canon park.
• I consider going to see the Buddy Holly story staring Dave Clay. No-one wants to go with me so I stay home. We eat leftovers for dinner.
• Sunday morning Milly and I leave T sleeping and sneak out for breakfast at Luka Bean. I eat a bacon/egg burger. Noel and B show up. They join us. They buy food and later licorice all-sorts on a plate. We leave in a hurry and forget to pay! I phone Noel from the Willows intersection and he says he will get the bill for us. We wander around the Willows markets for a little bit and meet EJ and kids. We discuss her upcoming movie career also. Victoria and her family appear also. She is incomprehensible. Her baby is very cute. We go to Gloria Jeans and text Chris and Deet. As we wander to the car, past the new rabbit fence, back we stop in a couple of shops and cash converters. I buy a combination luggage lock and a magazine. Milly gets me a wooden thing from the wooden thing shop and trys to buy a porcelain spoon. The shop girl overcharges us $1. We tell her.
• At home I decide that my bike needs oil. I go and buy some and also put air in my tires, they are 10 PSI under inflated. I apply the touch up paint to the scratches. You spray the paint in the cap and apply with a little brush. Milly lets me paint a tiny flower in purple and silver on her green toenail polish. I realise that I don't need oil because I was looking at the indicator with the bike on the side stand. Duh. I wash the bike and also Milly's car then I clean the chain and lube it. My hands and fingernails turn black. I setup my gearsack so it's locked to the bike and also put the luggage lock on the zipper. Now I am late for bowling. I clean my hands and get dressed.
• It's M's "Gotcha" day so we are going bowling. I score a disappointing 97. I take some camera footage of the kids. Jun is very good. Shaun is also good. He scores 132. J is forced to bowl left handed. Milly scores 16. She has to go the airport to get Sacha. Shaun and I have another game quickly before everyone else is finished. I at least get above 100.
• We drive over to J & S's. T takes photos of the house for the party. We eat fish and salad and cake and watch most of Big Brother opening night. Later on after most of the guests have gone home we have a swim. It's cold. I take some underwater photos of Milly and T. J shows us his sexpo showbag. I watch some of Cars on the cinema screen. Still haven't seen all of that movie.
• We go home. Milly and T are wet. I'm not since I already got dressed. At home Milly and I watch a little tv. I read some of my bike magazine in bed and eventually fall asleep.

Youtube Indie Rock Acoustic Guitar Girls

From What Would Jesus Blog via Stereogum.

andrew bird

maybe I should have explained that.. Andrew Bird is a violinist singer/songwriter who I was lucky enough to see live supporting Joanna Newsom. I've been digging him a lot lately. The muppets are from a tv show on the "childrens music channel" or something like that, where Andrew made a guest appearance to sing a song called Dr Stringz. I thought it was nice though those muppets are dreadfully annoying. What is it with childrens' TV? Even the good shows are really bad.

Gmail Paper

call me gullible, I thought it was real :) it seems like a cool product... and actually in some parts of the world this service really exists... see here

my favourite commercial ever

Ps, I have broadband again, hurrah! RIP Rawnet. Pps, the newspaper said you can still get your duty free.

bike update

It's day 3 of being a biker. So far I have done 60 kms. Each day I get a little better, my gear changes are becoming smoother and I feel more like I know what I'm doing. I learnt (the hard way) on day one, that it won't start with the kickstand down, well actually it starts fine in neutral but kills itself when you put it into gear. Which is a good thing. This cause me some grief when I was trying take off after the first tank of petrol when I forgot to put the kickstand up.. Also I've stalled it once or twice which is always fun especially when 50 cars are behind me at the lights. Today I took an alternate route to work including a trip over "the bridge" and took it up to, er, 100kph (very carefully of course). That was fun! Also a friend donated his old gearsack which is awesome I can fit my bag in there so it's not on my back and still have room for a couple of bags of shopping.

andrew bird is dr stringz

life without broadband

my broadband provider (Rawnet) gives used to give me ADSL2+ with 1500kbs throttled to 512kbs when I use my quota. they have free connection, free modem. This is for $25 a month. To compare my previous isp gave me ADSL1 with 512kbs throttled to 64kbps once I use my quota (10G) for $50 a month. Strangely rawnet can't afford to pay their internet bills and are currently "off the air". They've been offline for about a month. Their website says they will be back soon but I am starting to doubt it. I believe their managment board is either in Barbados lighting cigars with money, or catching a taxi from bank to bank trying to convince someone to give him 10 million dollars. I imagine it like this:

Rawnet guy: Okay I need 10 million to keep my business going.
Bank manager: Your business model of selling a service for half what it costs isn't working too well. What are you going to do?
R: We will purchase and install more DSLAMs in all the phone exchanges. We will expand into Cairns and Mackay. We will give out more $800 ADSL2+ modems. We will sponsor more sporting teams. And update our office decor. This way we can increase our customer base.
B: Thanks so much for dropping by.

I will miss you rawnet.

so I started watching...

...the remake of The Producers on Movie Two. It was boring so I flicked over to Movie Extra which was Ferris Buellers's Day Off. Hmm, Matthew Broderick double play I thought. Then I flicked over to Scrubs on Comedy and it was Alan Ruck! Okay I didn't know his name but it's the guy from Ferris Bueller, the one whose Dad has the sports car. Woah. Then I flicked over to... (and this went on and on until eventually... Kevin Bacon). No just kidding about the last sentence. Possibly there were other Ferris Bueller cast members on at the same time on other channels. I just don't know.

if you had to...

...entirely erase the memory of every concert you'd ever been to, except for one, what would it be and why?

Me: Joanna Newsom, Spiegeltent, January 25th 2007. Of course.
Milly: But what about Sigur Ros?
Me: I know. But still.
Milly: Joanna was good. But I choose Sigur Ros, Enmore, 2006. I hallucinated glowing lights.
Me: What?
Milly: I saw a white glow surrounding people in the audience. Especially their hands and fingers.
Me: Did it shoot upwards towards the stage?
Milly: Mmm [thinks]... a little bit.
Me: !!!

my new toy

if you were paying attention last september or whenever it was you would know that I was trying to get my motorcyle license. Well thanks for asking, I did get it and yesterday I picked up.... this! It's a GSX750F 1989 "Slingshot". I think slingshot is something to do with what happens when you drive very fast into something? So I'm not sure if I'm destined to be a biker but what the hell I'm giving it a try.

milly's new toy

Plus:

• Animal Crossing
• Brain Training
• Yoshi's Island
• New Super Mario

Well the last one was for me really. The DS is very cool. Especially the black one. We fondled a pink one briefly but had to go for black. Milly has pimped her's with some bling like tiny little fake rhinestones. I like Brain Training. You hold the DS sideways like a book. Then you write stuff with the stylus so it's even more like a book. It's a very statisfying user experience. Plus it has awesome sudoku just as a bonus game. I think the DS would be quite good as a book reader actually. Also can you get an mp3 player for it? I should google that.

hot right now - "twitter"

i'm thinking of signing up for a twitter account just because it's so hot right now. the link is blog super-star kottke on twitter. hmm. so it's like a cross between IM and blogging.

Bittersweet

So the back bar at the Dalrymple, venue for such world-shaking events as this (spazzys) and this (radiators) is now a Dan Murphys. I want to be upset but oh boy have you seen the sweet range of alcholic beverages and the agreeable down-lighting at the Dan Murhpys? Mmm... booze...

But it seems that others are not taking it so well, for instance these two handgun wielding fans of live music appear to want retribution. "Possibly using an Irish accent"??? On the day after St Patricks day? At Dan Murphys? Why not a leprechaun mask? Tsk, no style at all. And ps, what is the second guy's mask? Is it Petey from fall out boy?

My art project

So I have this idea for an art project. I thought of it many years ago and have described it to several people. Now I will tell it to you.

Imagine a regular small room, roughly cubical in shape, painted white or some neutral colour. The wall furthest from the entry point is a video screen hooked up to a camera which is in the centre of the video screen facing outwards into the room. So effectively the screen behaves like a video mirror. Imagine looking at yourself on your own webcam, only bigger. The image should be mirrored so it actually is like a mirror. Now for the cool part -- there is a time delay on the image. So image is the mirror is of the room some minutes ago. In the room there is a small table with a clock on it positioned so the clock face is visible in the video mirror. There should be no explanation or blurb other than "time machine" or some other less cheesy title.

"Some minutes ago" could be one minute, two minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, 24 hours. This could be tuned to suit the gallery conditions and opening hours. For example a mostly empty gallery would better suit a short time delay. So you see yourself walking into the room before you get too bored and walk out. In a busy gallery you could tune the delay so you will see people who visited the piece an hour ago. The actual time delay chosen doesn't really matter.

This piece interests me because as a viewer of the piece you become, without consent, part of the piece for a future viewer. Also because the "mirror" is effectively a portal allowing you to see into the past. If you don't "get" it at first then your entry, puzzled looks, shrugging gestures and departure, becomes entertainment for a future viewer of the piece. For short time delays it will be fun to make funny faces and do a dance to see what you look like. For long time delays it still might be fun but you will be entertaining not to yourself but to future viewers.

Variation: On the table next to the clock is a flat panel LCD screen which shows the same (delayed) image as the wall. It is positioned so that the screen is visible to the camera. Because the camera records what is on that screen this causes effectively a feedback loop so that the image of the small screen on the big screen becomes another time delay into the past. And if you look closer you should be able to see yet another time delay into the past as the image within that image. Perhaps this is not explained clearly enough but it's like a hall of mirrors effect only each "reflected" mirror is some minutes into the past. This is interesting because it gives us a stepped view into the past, in theory, back to when the power was switched on. In practice of course it will be limited by the resolution of the screen and the camera.

Anyway I am telling you this because I discovered a couple of months ago that someone had my idea (or at least something pretty close to it) back in the 70s! They built something quite similar (which would have been quite tricky with the technology of the times) and I saw it at the MCA at Circular Quay back in the January!!! It was brilliant! I will tell you more about it and another really cool piece from the same exhibition it in my next post.

Ps, If anyone would like to sponsor me to create this piece I will need $4000. :)